Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Labour Party opposes the motion. It does not do so because of its intrinsic merits, which the party might support in a different context. If there was general compliance with Ireland's Kyoto commitments, some of the benign purposes for which this motion is intended might recommend themselves to the party. However, Labour Members oppose it because they wish to flag what is happening in this regard to the people. This is the start of a process. As the Minister noted, "this motion is to allow the first actual purchases to be made". This constitutes the start of an obligation on the people and taxpayers to pay for carbon and to pay for the failures of the Government in this sphere during the past ten years. The amount being sought for approval from the Dáil today may be relatively small in the context of what Ireland will be eventually obliged to pay. However, this constitutes the start of a bill for the taxpayer that may be as high as €500 million by 2012.

While the Minister and the Government will always recoil from the concept of carbon taxation, there should be no mistake about what is being done in the House today. This is a motion which taxes the Irish people for carbon and which is the start of a payment process which will cost the Irish people hundreds of millions of euro in the years ahead. That payment and that burden on the taxpayer must be met because the Government has failed over the past ten years to align our carbon emissions with what was required by the Kyoto Agreement. It is a failure which will cost the taxpayer a great deal of money and which will cost the environment and future generations.

The Minister quoted the Stern report and told us what happened at Nairobi. He sounds like a man who discovered global warming on the way to Nairobi——

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